


DS9 High School

by Team_Two_Cats



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-11-09 08:32:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17998460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Team_Two_Cats/pseuds/Team_Two_Cats
Summary: Julian Bashir is the resident tennis star at DS9HS. But when transfer student Weyoun arrives and begins starting trouble, it's up to Julian "the Doctor" Bashir and his, ahem, friend Garak to set things to right and unravel the tangled plot afoot.





	DS9 High School

**Author's Note:**

> So this was written as a challenge fic and I ended up doing the first chapter in what could be a longer work. No idea if I'll return to it, or when, but a bit of light fun.

**Chapter 1: Opening Serve**

 

Quark threw a rubber ducky at him.

“You two are dating now,” he said, adopting a smile that could grease a slip and slide.

“Excuse me,” Julian said. “I don’t think—”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Quark said, hands making little calming gestures like he was soothing Morn after a sub-par glee club performance. “It’s for charity.”

Julian looked down at the duck. Or...what might be a duck? On closer inspection, it appeared green and maybe scaled. He turned it over and read the bottom. _Made with happy labor on New Ferengenar XII_. Happy labor. Right.

“Is this supposed to be a duck?” Julian asked, then shook his head. “Wait, _charity_?”

“Of course.” Quark put a hand to his chest. “Promoting cultural understanding and harmony. The new Vorta exchange student is very interested in hu-mon courtship rituals. So I thought ‘Who better to help this vulnerable person in a whole new quadrant than Julian Bashir, our school’s resident tennis ace and class secretary?”

“So he’s paying you?”

Quark’s smile slipped a fraction.

“To have me...do what exactly with this...is this supposed to be a duck?”

“It is _precisely_ a duck,” Quark said, grabbing the rubber animal from his hands. “Made from the most thorough of Ferengi research into hu-mon fauna. And I resent the implication that I would be operating with less than noble intentions. Weyoun simply wanted to observe how you went about...you know...”

“With a duck?”

“Well I might have implied that they were a sort of ‘practice run’ for hu-mon youths who weren’t adept at dating rituals. And since there’s a dance coming up...”

Julian’s back straightened. “I am not inept at dating.”

Quark ran a tongue of his own pointed upper teeth. “Look, Julian, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Everyone knows about that...incident with Jadzia and the Spring Fling two years ago. And since then, well...”

Julian’s hands clenched into fists. 

“Now see here, you little—”

“Everything all right here, gentlemen?” the locker beside them asked as it transformed into a slender-framed student with a scowl and an orange sash.

“Odo!” Quark said, eyes bulging. “What exactly d—”

“That’s Hall Monitor Odo to you, Quark. And please, I could tell by the way you and that Weyoun character were conspiring that you were up to no good. Kindly return to your third period and allow Mister Bashir here to go about his business.”

Julian rolled his eyes. It was bad enough that Quark had corned him in the hallway—adding Odo into the mix was like adding a hundred pounds of sexually repressed pudding over everything—thoroughly unpleasant. Already Quark and Odo were lost in their own little world, voices raised in outrage, righteousness, and indignation. They really should just make out and get it over with. But it did give Julian a chance to slip away while they were distracted. Quark might have a third period, but thanks to being on Varsity Tennis Julian was waved out of gym, and had no such commitments.

Sneaking down the hall and sliding out the side door toward the courts, Julian finally let himself relax. That is, until a familiar voice called out from directly beside him.

“Good day, Doctor.”

Julian jumped, though really by now he should have been used to it.

“Does _everyone_ have to sneak up on me today?” he asked, letting his exasperation show. 

“My dear Doctor, you sound positively upset,” Garak said, continuing to chide Julian with his tennis _nom de guerre_. Though mild mannered, Julian “the Doctor” Bashir was surgical on the courts, and the school’s best chance for sending anyone to nationals this year. “It’s rather cute.”

“S-sorry,” Julian said, blushing. “It’s just...nothing.”

“It seems like something, though, doesn’t it?” 

Julian sighed. For two years he had known Garak, and yet in all that time he had never gotten a very good read on him. Aside from being Cardassian, which was rare at the joint Bajoran/Federation-run DS9HS, he didn’t give much away. Except that he routinely eviscerated the school’s debate team and possibly poisoned the math teacher suspected of discriminatory grading. Though that last could be a nasty rumor because the Bajoran teachers didn’t like him. 

“I’m just...Quark reminded me that the first dance of the year is coming up.”

“And you don’t have a date.”

Julian nodded and deflated.

“Well, that’s not exactly unusual,” Garak said. “I believe I remember you saying something to the effect of ‘I will never go to another dance as long as I live’ following the...uh...incident with you and Jadzia...”

“I wish people would stop bringing that up.”

“It was, I’m afraid, rather...memorable.”

“It was years ago.”

“You crashed through the glass ceiling of the gym...naked. You’re lucky that Jadzia managed to reverse the polarity on that graviton beam or you, and most of the dance, would have been seriously injured.”

“Lucky?” Julian tried to remain calm but felt the heat in his face. “I was stuck in that beam for _hours_ while they fixed things. Hours.”

“Yes, well it was unfortunate I suppose that the chaperones weren’t faster in covering you with a tablecloth. I think Quark still manages to sell a few copies of the compiled video recordings to new students.”

Julian groaned. “Don’t remind me. Though speaking of new students, what do you know about Weyoun?”

“Aside from the fact that I’d keep a very close eye on him? Not much.”

Julian’s eye brows lifted. “What do you mean, ‘a very close eye’?”

Garak grinned. “Ah, so you haven’t heard. Well it seems that Weyoun was something of a big deal at his previous school. Selected to be one of the few transfers from Dominion HS because of his prowess in a number of areas.”

“You sound like you know a bit more than ‘not much.’ And _how_ do you know so much about what happened at a high school in another quadrant?”

Garak shrugged. “I’d rather not get into such...trivialities. Rest assured, I trust the source.”

“And Weyoun’s...areas of prowess?”

Garak’s grin widened. “Well what I can _confirm_ is that he dated about half the people at his school and parted on good terms with _all_ of them.”

“No.” That was simply impossible.

“He was also the class secretary, an avid thespian, and...a star tennis player.”

Julian’s stomach lurched. The world seems to be spinning. He stared at Garak with a mix of horror and outrage and fear battling for supremacy inside him.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Garak said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “It’s not the end of the world.”

But suddenly the incident with Quark made sense. It wasn’t the action of someone who didn’t understand human customs. No, it was the action of a person probing for weaknesses. An opening serve. Preparing for...an all out assault. Julian swallowed.

“I think I might be sick,” he said, but Garak didn’t release him. Instead, he drew a bit closer, and though it didn’t dispel the panic brewing inside him, Julian didn’t recoil from the contact.

“My dear Doctor,” Garak said, “please reassure yourself. There’s absolutely nothing to fear.”

“There’s not?” Julian asked.

Garak shook his head. “Of course not. Yes, this Weyoun might be quite the date, actor, and tennis player. And his appearance here doesn’t seem to be an accident. Nor does his interest in you, though I’m not sure why that is…yet.”

“And that’s supposed to reassure me?”

“Well, you do have one thing that he doesn’t.”

“I do?” Julian asked.

Garak nodded. “You do. You have me. And _I_ have a plan.”


End file.
